


Why Couldn't It Be Zombies?

by taibhrigh



Category: The Losers (2010)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Apocalypse, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-17
Updated: 2014-02-17
Packaged: 2018-01-12 15:11:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 19,683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1189782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/taibhrigh/pseuds/taibhrigh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Specialist Jake Jensen is assigned a last minute mission that seemed like it was going to be a walk in the park. What he wasn't expecting was the apocalypse that started after, but who really ever expects that?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Why Couldn't It Be Zombies?

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to [siluria](http://archiveofourown.org/users/siluria) and [tarlan](http://archiveofourown.org/users/tarlan) for the beta. Thank you to Colls for the [wonderful art](http://swannee.dreamwidth.org/107373.html). 
> 
> This was written for apocalypsebang on LJ.

~~~***~~~

  


~~~***~~~

Jake had been prepared for a zombie apocalypse. He honestly had. He blamed _The Walking Dead_ , _World War Z_ and _Resident Evil_ ; plus hundreds of other things in the media. That and his family home actually had an old fallout come hurricane shelter slash storage area. God, he hoped his sister and niece were okay. Not that it was zombies. It was worse than zombies.

"I need this boat to move faster!" he screamed up at the clear blue skies.

~~~***~~~

**The Beginning or Ten Days Ago.**

Jake found himself being temporarily assigned to Colonel Franklin Clay's unit again. It had been the fifth time in the last fifteen months. Getting a computer and tech specialist permanently assigned to a SpecOps team rarely happened, even if that tech had the training. There just weren't enough of them to go around. And while Clay's unit, The Losers, had a reputation as being the best, it also had one for getting both the dangerous and crap ass missions no one else wanted. There was also a long, very long, list of injuries suffered by its members--rotating or not. The last tech temporarily assigned to the team had died during the last mission. The mission before that, their helicopter had been shot down and the list of injuries included two broken ankles, a broken wrist, and a dead co-pilot.

So far, Jake held the record for being the only one not injured or killed on a mission with The Losers. Yay him. He also wasn't being assigned to the Losers on a permanent basis; he already had another assignment setup for three days after the Losers' scheduled return. The only good thing about the team, at least in Jake's opinion, was the sniper. Jake really liked the sniper. Too bad his fantastic, bestest memories for the shower had been from a two-night stand with a guy who had picked him up in a no name bar that he would later discover was a fellow member of the Army. Since then he and Cougar had only one other little affair when they had both found themselves in another tiny bar in a different country that neither of them had officially been in.

He looked over the other members of The Losers as their helicopter took off. He liked Pooch well enough, knew the dark skinned man was newly married and apparently had lost his hair in eleventh grade and it had never grown back. Pooch had told him that it had been a clear sign he was meant to join the army. For the life of him, Jake couldn't figure out how such a normal person had stuck it out with The Losers.

Clay was just crazy. At least that's what Jake was going with. The man smoked cigars like they were going out of style and rarely said no to a mission. Apparently he was trying to live up to his grandfather's reputation of being a hard ass and the need to get at least one set of general stars on his shoulders before he turned fifty. 

The last member, Roque, scared the hell out of Jake. The large black man with his love of very large knives and a scar across his right eye and cheek freaked him the hell out and Jake couldn't really put a finger on exactly why.

Jake sat leg to leg next to Cougar. It had made him giddy when the shorter, Spanish man had sat down next to him on the helicopter. He wasn't sure how Cougar was able to get away with the long hair but maybe being one of the best snipers in the military had perks--getting out of Clay's unit not being one of them. He sat quietly next to Cougar and typed away on his tablet computer while the other man pretended to doze under the hat he wore.

This was supposed to be a quick in and out. The location had a security system that almost rivaled the Pentagon's and that was the only reason a tech had been assigned to the mission.

~~~***~~~

**Nine days ago.**

Cougar hated letter-agency sanctioned missions. It meant each member of the team really only knew their part. Though Clay as their CO had the big picture the rest of them only knew what they needed to do. He looked through the scope of his rifle and fired twice. The two men approaching Jake's position fell. Jake didn't even look up, just gave him a thumbs up and went back to breaching the compound's security cameras.

He scanned the area around Jake looking for other targets. That particular patrol had been on time, the Losers had been late in their arrival. It was pushing the mission off its timetable.

"Team One," Jake's voice came over the comms, "The keycard on the guard's belt at the gate will get you wherever you need. You have fifteen minutes."

Or maybe not, Cougar thought, shifting his rifle to watch his other three teammates approach the guard stand and then enter the building. He wasn't sure what Jake had done but the mission was now only two minutes behind schedule. Cougar still wasn't sure when Specialist Jensen had become Jake. He did not form attachments, especially with one night stands. He'd tried to keep his feelings for the other man at bay; had tried to avoid him. Had actually seen him in a coffee shop in Malta and walked away; but hadn't been able to do it again. Hadn't wanted to either, to be honest.

"Fantastic," Clay's response came back, drawing Cougar from his thoughts. "Return to the rendezvous spot, Specialist, so Cougar doesn't have to save your ass again."

"Sir," Jake acknowledged. There was no further communication from Jake. 

Cougar watched Jake pack up his gear and then take out a third security guard on his own by breaking the guard's neck. Clay called them _gruntabees_ and many of them had not been prepared for the types of missions the Losers received. Jake had been one of two who could handle things, though Clay and Roque hadn't taken notice. To them the person in that position was a tool to be returned. Status of the tool on return to base was of little importance. He doubted either man actually knew Jake's name.

Ten minutes later Jake was laying in the grass next to him. The smaller computer Jake carried was open as he watched the team move within the building. At that moment, Cougar realized that Clay had no idea what skills Jake really possessed; and Cougar wasn't going to inform him either.

"They're exiting," Jake said softly.

Cougar's focus changed to the doors the Losers were supposed to exit. Clay, Pooch, and then Roque exited followed by two guards which Cougar eliminated.

"You do have some mad shooting skills," Jake said, grinning over at him.

Cougar smirked. Then the building exploded. All that was left was the pickup and a flight home. Maybe he could setup another rendezvous with Jake.

~~~***~~~

**Six days ago.**

They were still in San Juan, Puerto Rico waiting for transport back to the States. Until that morning Cougar hadn't known what the hold up was or even why their stopover had put them in Puerto Rico and not Miami but now he was piecing things together. Two days ago Clay had said this was where orders had put them and that was where they were staying until new ones came in. 

He had been okay with that. Clay had put them in a hotel outside of Fort Buchanan. Cougar had made sure he had an adjoining room to Jake's. The fact that they weren't actually using Jake's room didn't matter. Jake had messed up the bed, used the shower, set his bags on the credenza, and hung the do not disturb sign on his hotel room door.

Cougar had made quick work of the damp towels that had been tossed back into Jake's room. He'd barely had to prepare Jake, the other man's only comment had been "showers can be useful", before Cougar was sliding into him. Jake's back arched and both men let out a moan of gratification as Cougar thrust in and out, quickly finding a rhythm that met both their needs. He reached around and stroked Jake's cock in time with his own thrusts.

Jake's climax had pulled his own from his body and left them both panting for air. Cougar had moved the towel he had placed under them and used the wash cloth he'd left nearby to clean them up before allowing Jake's embrace. Sleep had taken them almost immediately but not before Cougar had thoughts of trying to get Clay to keep the Specialist in the unit.

Now, Cougar was thinking they weren't going home anytime soon. He'd turned on the television to find every channel reporting the same thing. Last count had one hundred and twenty-seven small devices going off in more than ninety countries. All seven continents had been hit--even an Arctic research station had been targeted. The devices let off a beeping noise for sixty seconds, drawing in crowds. Then flashed a bright light that was quickly followed by an aerosol spray that lasted twenty seconds. The device would become dormant for several minutes, allowing most of the crowds to back away from it from before it exploded.

Within hours people near the sites were complaining of headaches, body aches, sore throats, and fevers. Coughing and swelling of the sinuses came next. It explained the commotion on the other side of the island last night. Apparently one of the devices had gone off.

Within twenty-four hours people outside of the immediate area had started surfacing with symptoms. Within thirty hours, people had started dying.

"Shit," he heard Jake say and then the other man's typing increased. "Shit, shit. Pickup, pickup."

Cougar turned the television off and walked over to Jake in time to see a small window open on Jake's computer. "Uncle Jake," the little girl said, her eyes were puffy, and Cougar could tell the little girl was scared but put on a brave front when she saw Cougar.

 _Ah,_ Cougar thought, _the niece that Jake has spoken of._ Five, maybe six years old; younger than he thought based on the stories Jake had recently told him.

"Becca, Cougar," Jake said, introducing them. "Cougs, my niece Becca. Now where is your mom, Becks?"

"She went to the pharmacy for cough medicine."

Cougar leaned in even as Jake scooted closer to the screen. "Are you sick?"

Becca shook her head no. "Mom is," the little girl said. "You have to come home, Uncle Jake, bad things are happening."

Cougar leaned in and whispered into Jake's ear. "Rioting has started in some of the harder hit areas."

"Shi... crap," Jake started typing in another window. "Becks you remember _Operation Zombie_?"

The little girl nodded her head to indicate she did. "Good," Jake nodded in return. "Start it now. "

"Becca!" A female voice called from off camera. The call was followed by a cough.

"In here mom," Becca answered. "Uncle Jake is on the computer."

Cougar took a good look at Jake's sister, she did not look well. She was pale, sweating, coughing in a regular repetition and there were blue lines running down the side of her neck.

"Jake," the sister smiled softly and Cougar could see relief in her eyes.

"I know," Jake answered, fingers touching the screen for a second. "In the shelter. Now. I will get there. I promise. Do not leave until I get there. No matter what."

"Jake."

"Go."

The image went dark as the connection disappeared. Cougar squeezed Jake's shoulder. He had no immediate family to worry about but he could offer comfort where he could. "Operation Zombie?" he finally asked.

"Our grandfather was in World War II, the house is even older than that. He took the storm shelter and turned it into a fallout shelter. It's been upgraded. A lot." 

Cougar would get Jake home, even if they had to steal a plane.

~~~***~~~

**Five days ago.**

Jake's symptoms had started a couple of hours after he got off the call with his niece. Within hours he was down for the count. Sometime in the middle of the night he heard Cougar arguing with Clay and Roque.

"He's done for," Roque said, roughly. "Leave him."

"He didn't get the vaccination," Clay added. "Wasn't supposed to be on this mission. Casualty from the beginning."

"You knew?" That was Cougar's voice and Jake didn't think he'd ever heard the soft spoken Hispanic man sound so pissed off and all without raising his voice.

"Mission is a mission."

"Where's Pooch?" That was Cougar again.

"On a plane to his wife. Payment for his services."

There was silence.

"Get out," Cougar growled.

"Last chance, Sergeant Alvarez."

"Leave."

There was some disheveling noises as furniture was moved around. Jake kept his eyes closed as his vision was blurry now even with his glasses on and besides, opening them hurt. "Cougs," Jake called softly, opening his eyes ever so slightly.

The other man was there instantly.

"You need to go," he said, coughing in between words. "Favor to ask," he breathed out. He needed to ask. "Address. Hidden phone in duffle. Directions to Becca and shelter."

A cool cloth replaced the one on his forehead at the same time Cougar shushed him. "Just rest, Jake."

Jake tried not to close his eyes. Was afraid to if he was honest. Afraid that he wouldn't open them again.

"Promise me," he asked hoarsely, wrapping his fingers around Cougar's wrist.

"I promise," was the last thing Jake heard.

~~~***~~~

**Unknown days ago.**

Jake drifted in and out of consciousness. The only reason he knew this was because his whole body hurt and the pain radiated. The light hurt his eyes. Touch, even him trying to roll over made him whimper in pain.

He knew he wasn't alone only because someone kept dropping cool water that tasted of orange down his parched throat.

~~~***~~~

**Two and a half days ago.**

Jake almost bolted upright. Would have, if he'd had the strength. His skin itched and his throat was very dry, but he no longer felt like he was going to die. 

"Drink." A cup was put to his lips and he drank. He normally hated grape flavored Gatorade but right now he didn't care. He drank several sips and then the cup was removed. He started to protest but a voice interrupted.

"Once you are upright," the voice said, "you can have more."

"Cougs?" he asked, his voice barely a whisper.

Jake tried to open his eyes. Blinked several times before slowly raising his hand to rub at his eyes. Cougar's hand caught his and stopped him and a damp cloth washed across his face. Then his glasses settled on his nose. This time when he blinked his eyes, the room came into focus.

"Cougs?" he asked again.

Cougar put the glass to his lips again and he drank almost half of it before stopping. He looked around the room. The furniture was pushed against both the connecting room door and the door out into the breezeway. There were weapons laid out on the small table that had been between the room's two chairs. Not all the weapons were theirs either; or at least he hadn't seen them during the last mission. The lights still worked which meant there was still power. One of those small microwave-fridge units was in the corner that hadn't been there when they rented the rooms. Cougar had been busy.

"How long?"

"A few days."

"Becca!" Jake tried to move but Cougar stopped him. 

"Drink," Cougar said, this time it wasn't a glass but a small plastic bottle for one of those nutritional shakes, java mocha flavor--best of both worlds.

Jake didn't want to drink it, wanted to get out of bed and figure out a way to get home. Cougar lifted a dark eyebrow at him as he just sat there holding the bottle and not drinking. He could barely move and while his breathing no longer felt labored he wasn't about to run a marathon. He got it, he couldn't really do anything if he was just going to fall flat on his face as soon as he stood up. Jake gave Cougar a little nod and drank the shake down which tasted only slightly better than he thought it would.

Cougar nodded. "In an hour we will try solid food."

"Becca, Jen?" he asked, noticing that his laptop was open and on.

Cougar looked down at his watch. "As of six hours ago she was still okay."

Jake read a _but_ in there and waited but Cougar didn't say anything. There was gunfire outside and Cougar left the bed to look through the slightly opened curtains. Jake struggled to get out of bed until he was standing and the room wasn't spinning. He was still contemplating walking when Cougar appeared at his side.

"Window or bathroom?" Cougar asked.

"Both."

Cougar helped him to the window. There was smoke rising in the air in two different directions and he could just make out a third way off in the distance. Part of the left wing of the building they were in had scorch marks on the lower two floors as if something on fire had been thrown at the building. He could see abandoned cars, accidents, bodies. It was like a scene from a movie.

"The base?" he asked.

"Those that weren't sick pulled out about sixteen hours ago."

Jake put the curtain back in place and let Cougar guide him to the bathroom. He didn't want to think about what happened to those that were sick. Right now he needed to shower because he knew that would make him feel better. He also needed to relieve himself. Then he needed to get the hell out of here and back to the States. "How many people are still in this place?"

Cougar shrugged and helped him out of his clothes and into the shower. He would have been embarrassed if he hadn't already been sleeping with Cougar, and had the energy at the moment to care. The shower was quick but made Jake feel fifty percent better. The steam alone helped clear out his sinuses and remove the dried sweat from whatever fever he'd had from his body. The bowl of soup and sandwich he split with Cougar upped it to seventy-five. He was sure that by this evening or tomorrow morning he'd be almost to one hundred.

While he had showered Cougar had filled him in on what he knew. The rest of the Losers were gone. Pooch was most likely back in Massachusetts with his wife. It was unclear if Jolene had gotten the vaccine or not. Cougar figured Clay and Roque went back to whomever was pulling their strings. Most television stations had gone off the air about twelve hours earlier with only one or two still broadcasting on a signal the island received. Cell reception was spotty and appeared to be overloaded. Jake knew that would stop as more people died or gave up hope on reaching loved ones. Though, that could also change if someone sent a signal to the towers to shut down.

Some major cities had lost power as looters and others took up arms, and people got the bright idea that blowing up a power station or setting fire to whole city blocks was a good move in a time of crisis. One of the last newscasts had reported that the CDC still had no answers to what the virus was or who made it. The FBI and ATF hadn't been able to fully reconstruct the devices. The newscast had also mentioned that no one, terrorist group or crazy, had claimed responsibility. 

What the newscasters were reporting was that people fell into three categories: dead or dying, and at last count it was estimated that almost ninety-nine percent of the population fell into that category; what was left fell into the other two categories. A quarter of a percent suffered some symptoms--closer to a bad bout of the flu--but recovered and appeared unaffected within forty-eight to seventy-two hours. The rest were those who seemed to have a natural immunity.

Jake and Cougar knew there was a fourth sub-category to that last one which was possible skewing the survival rate numbers: those that had been vaccinated.

He quickly dressed in the fresh clothes Cougar handed to him and then sat down at the desk in front of his computer. He would try to get more information from sources not readily found on the air later; right now he just needed to leave a message for his sister and niece. He looked into the camera and recorded the message.

_Got held up. We're on our way._

Jake closed the laptop. "Tell me you have a plan?" he asked.

~~~***~~~

**One day ago.**

Cougar had said that he would steal a plane but that had been when Pooch was still in the equation and he wouldn't have to find a pilot. His replacement plan involved stealing a boat with enough fuel and supplies to get them as close to New Hampshire as possible. 

He hadn't let Jake out of their hotel room until after the other man had taken a short nap and eaten dinner. He had wanted Jake to be a little more stable--his balance had been a little wobbly earlier--before they moved. It also gave them time to finalize his plan. 

Cougar had hidden a car behind the row of dumpsters the hotel had begun using to remove the bodies of the guests who had expired due to the unknown disease. The area smelled of death and decay and that had kept people way. Soon though, survivors would start risking the bodies and the smell for supplies left in the hotel.

The car had maybe a quarter tank of gas and was going to need more as the two of them were going to need to travel to find a boat that would be able to fulfill their needs. Cougar didn't think the normal twenty minute drive was still going to take that; especially if they hit resistance. He was thankful that their mission had at least gotten them this far. He would take the Caribbean over being on another continent or across the ocean. He wasn't sure what they would have done if that had been the case.

Placing several more cans of fruit and vegetables into the large rolling file box he'd found, he turned and added a couple of boxes of oatmeal, soy and powered milk and anything else he thought they might need from the bodega's shelves. What they didn't use on their ocean journey they would need when they hit land. When the power started flickering at the small bodega he was taking supplies from, Cougar sped up this portion of their exit plan.

He siphoned the gas from several cars and then drove quickly around the abandoned cars that were between the bodega and the hotel; not even stopping when he saw a new car filled with bullet holes. Part of him felt bad that he hadn't stopped, there could be survivors from the shooting; but the other part of him knew it was either a trap or too late. Plus he had a made a promise and he was keeping it.

"Ready," he said into his comm unit. Jake had somehow recoded their comm units, breaking the military encryption and changing it to something that only worked for the two of them.

Last night Cougar had learned that Jake was more than just an army tech. He watched the other man hack a satellite until they could see the houses on the other side of the bay and the boats docked in the large marina as well as those parked near private homes. Jake had even taken a moment to check on the neighborhood where his sister lived. Neither man had noticed anything amiss and for now they were both taking that as a positive sign.

"Ready," came the response from Jake.

The night the other Losers had left, Cougar had gone to the base. He'd hated leaving Jake alone for the two hours but he had known they would need certain supplies and he wanted on and off the base before it could be overrun by the dying, or worse, the survivors. 

He had walked right through security with his credentials and had headed for a specific location; a closet that when the door opened looked like any other file room. He had walked over to a section of the wall and had lifted the lid on what looked like a master switch for the power to reveal a number pad. He had punched in a code and hoped it was still active. It had taken a moment but the hidden room had opened. A room used to store gear for missions that were not on any books. He had filled two duffel bags and two of the modular lightweight load-carrying equipment backpacks with necessities from the shelves and racks in the supply closet.

Cougar had packed the bags as if they were going on a mission of undetermined length. He filled all four bags with provisions from first aid necessities to MREs, weapons, and boxes of bullets. He added several emergency blankets, spare clothes, two sleeping bags, and any other gear he thought they might need if they had to get to New Hampshire on foot.

Together he and Jake had also searched the rooms on their floor and the ones directly above and below. Cougar had asked for forgiveness as he'd taken from the dead. Before he'd left on the run for canned food and gas he and Jake had packed everything up in their hotel room and transported it down to the side stairwell where Jake was waiting for him.

He rounded the last corner and pulled the car up to the emergency exit door that only opened from the inside. "Now," he said into the comm and was already climbing out of the vehicle and opening the other doors and the trunk.

Jake swung the door open, used a cement brick to hold it open and started carrying the many bags towards the car. It took less than thirty seconds to have the car loaded before Jake let the emergency door close and Cougar was driving off.

~~~***~~~

**Getting home.**

"I need this boat to move faster!" Jake screamed up at the clear blue skies and then vomited over the side of the boat before sliding to sit on one of the benches with his head between his legs.

"I know you're laughing at me in your non-verbal way." Jake didn't even have to look up to know that Cougar was standing about a foot away. The other man was a hoverer and Jake, under any other circumstances would have liked that fact.

A hand appeared within his line of sight. The palm opened to reveal two tiny pills. "Those make me wired," Jake admitted.

Cougar snorted. "I'd rather you be up for the next five hours babbling away or hacking into some computer somewhere than throwing up over the side of the boat. You are still recovering."

"I," he started to say.

"No arguments," Cougar stated. "Take the pills, drink the water, and breathe slowly."

"I would kiss you," Jake admitted, trying to see something good in this disaster. "But I need to brush my teeth first and I'm not sure my stomach could take that right now."

Cougar sat down next to him and Jake swished water around in his mouth, spitting it out over the side of the boat twice before swallowing down the two pills and closing his eyes. He'd been on boats before. Okay, it had been an aircraft carrier and he hadn't officially been there but there had been no vomiting because that would just have been embarrassing and he's not sure why this little yacht was making him sick.

"You are worried and still recovering," Cougar reminded him and Jake had to wonder if he'd said that out loud; with Cougar he could never tell. 

They had been at sea for six hours and there was nothing around them as they moved north towards the United States. It had taken them a little longer to find a boat that wasn't either surrounded by people or filled with bullet holes. Also Jake had been looking for something specific--a boat that could make the voyage from Puerto Rico to New England--which they had found after checking almost a dozen private homes. Plus, according to the ship's travel logs it had actually made the voyage there and back again a couple of times. They'd swept the house for survivors only to find three bodies that looked like they had succumbed to the sickness and one man who had shot himself.

They filled the yacht's multiple gas tanks before also filling several small gas canisters as well. The yacht they had chosen was known for its fuel efficiency and it had been decked out in all the latest tech. When Jake picked this particular boat he had only hoped that whomever started this apocalyptic-like scenario hadn't seen the previews for that new television show _Revolution_ because he didn't need an EMP or a world wide power failure. 

The boat had auto-pilot via GPS navigation and a gas powered raft dinghy. They were going to need the raft to get onto land because neither one of them thought pulling up to a dock in a boat in the middle of a crisis was a good idea. Even as they were leaving Puerto Rico the main marinas and docks had become mini militant zones. 

Jake had plotted the course using the GPS and auto-nav system to keep them at least ten miles off the coastline as they made their way north toward Maine. From the satellite images he had pulled earlier he knew parts of Miami were on fire. Several cargo ships had run aground between the Keys and the Cape Hatteras area of North Carolina. He guessed that as the ships' pilots got sick someone turned off the ship's autopilot trying to take the larger ships to another destination. Though honestly Jake didn't know enough about the cargo ships to do anything more than make a guess.

From what Jake had read, the grounding of all air traffic had kept commercial flights on the ground after the first plane had crashed into the Pacific Ocean. Pilots for private jets and smaller commuter planes who had ignored the air flight halt hadn't been so lucky. Any flight that was up now was probably piloted either by the military or by a person with immunity to the disease. The same hadn't been true for the cargo vessels already at sea. They had continued on their voyage and from the imagery Jake had pulled up from one satellite it was like ghost ships crossing the oceans and seas around the world. He wasn't sure what that meant for passenger liners. Could there be whole ships with people who hadn't been exposed? Or worse, real ghost ships crossing the world's oceans.

He shivered. "At least there's been no nightmares of rats in the corn," he muttered, dragging his hands through his hair.

Cougar made a noise somewhere between a laugh and a snort. "We are not in a Stephen King novel," Cougar replied. "More like something in between the BBC and SyFy."

Jake tilted his head to the side so that he could look at Cougar. He just realized that the silent man that he had picked up in a bar, or was it the other way around and Cougar had picked him up, in the end it didn't matter, was a geek. 

He couldn't help himself, he leaned in and kissed Cougar on the cheek. "Thank you," he said softly, leaning into the other man's embrace.

~~~***~~~

Cougar watched Jake sleep. It had taken them four days to get this close but at least they were finally on dry land. They'd had only two encounters with other vessels and both had been ghost ships. When they reached the coast of Maine he and Jake had offloaded all their supplies onto the raft and hit land from there. The borrowed yacht would continue north on autopilot just in case someone was still around and monitoring the satellites. The yacht would become just another ghost ship that ran aground or floated out into the middle of the ocean when it ran out of gas. So far they had been very lucky and while Cougar hoped their luck would hold he was making sure they had supplies in case it did not.

Two days into the journey Jake had panicked. Cougar found it endearing that in the middle of his own family crisis Jake had begun to panic about Cougar's. Cougar had finally told Jake that until Pooch married none of the Losers had had family. That's why they were assigned the missions they were assigned--because if something did go wrong there was no family that had to be placated.

"I'm sorry," Jake had told him, taking his hand and squeezing it.

Cougar had shaken his head. It was something in his past and he had learned long ago to not dwell on things that could not be changed. Something in his eyes or face must have given him away though because Jake's next words had truly warmed his heart.

"You have family now," Jake had said. "So don't you forget it."

He turned to look out the window one more time and then crawled into bed and wrapped his arms around Jake. Tomorrow they were going to start their drive to New Hampshire.

The cabin they were spending the night in was several miles inland from the small public boat ramp Jake had directed them to. They'd landed just before sunrise and made it to the cabins--rentals and tourist season had been over for several weeks, or so it seemed. The ramp had been part of a local park. They had found several abandoned cars and Cougar had hot-wired the first one that would hold all their gear.

In case there were still people in the area they destroyed the raft--making it look like it had washed up on shore. They covered their tracks so no one would think to look for survivors wandering the area. Then they made directly for the cabins. Cougar had found the owners both dead in their own bed, as if they had died together in their sleep. There was no way to tell if that was true or not but that's the tale he was telling himself. Several of the cabins had been ransacked and another one held the remains of what looked like a fisherman who had taken his own life. 

They'd chosen a cabin in the back. They had also switched the car for the owner's dark green SUV. It would give them more space, get them further, and be less conspicuous than the orange car they had gotten at the boat ramp.

Cougar came awake with a jolt. Jake was still sleeping beside him but Cougar knew he had heard something. He lay there and listened, filtering out Jake's soft breathing. The rustle of leaves and branches sounded again. He rolled out of bed and quietly made his way to the window to glance out. What he saw made him pause. 

"Looks like George," Jake said softly from behind him, his voice sounding sleepy but alert.

"George?"

"The rangers probably called him something else but my sister always called him George because he was curious and was never interested in the picnic baskets or anything else; just walked the area to look at all the people--like a reverse zoo or something."

Cougar glanced over his shoulder at Jake before returning to watch the large bear lumbering through the trees.

"Do you think it effected the animals?"

Cougar didn't know and until that moment hadn't given it much thought, but it was a good question. Whoever engineered this disease would know that any survivors and those that had been vaccinated would eventually need fresh food especially as stores were emptied of their contents. "I would guess, no."

"Good," Jake said, turning from the window.

Cougar dropped the curtain and followed Jake back towards the bed. They had planned on leaving in the early afternoon but he didn't think either of them would mind the hour delay his distraction was going to cause.

He lightly pushed Jake back onto the bed and climbed on top of him. Removing clothes as quickly as he could. He took Jake's cock in his mouth only for a minute before working his way up the taller man's body. He moved to straddle Jake, prepping himself quickly before lowering himself on Jake's cock. He leaned forward, taking Jake's lips in a kiss even as Jake gripped his hips and arched upward. He shifted, clenched inner muscles and rode Jake until they were both climaxing. 

Cougar shifted again, letting Jake slip free of his body. They both moaned at the loss, even as they were still trying to catch their breaths. He rested his head on Jake's shoulder.

It was time. As soon as they showered and dressed it was time to leave. Time to get to New Hampshire and Cougar prayed that Jake's sister and niece were safe. Even though he knew that Becca had mentioned her mother was very sick the last time he had spoken to her--it was something he had still not told Jake.

~~~***~~~

Jake knew the drive from the state park in Maine to his home in New Hampshire would normally take him around two hours and twenty minutes, and that was if he didn't make any stops and took the interstate and toll roads for part of the trip. He could save himself twenty miles using alternate routes but that often took him an hour longer because of the speed limits and two lane roads. Though, Jake doubted if any route would be particularly speedy at this point.

He and Cougar had debated on the back roads, state roads, toll roads, highways, or interstates until neither one of them could remember who was for which route. Jake knew all of them without needing a map. That had been the one advantage in all this. The problems lay with deciding which roads would be blocked with abandoned cars or bodies, by survivors looking to steal from others, by any military still operating in the area, or just anything else that could popup. 

The military issue would become more significant as they got closer to Hanover. The US Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory was located there and if its employees had been deemed essential then it was possible that the area was going to be heavily secured. Jake's home was south of Hanover and he did know a back road or too.

When Jake had stepped outside that afternoon he had found Cougar with a hand drill and a stack of phone books, magazines and newspapers.

"You have seen one too many episodes of _MacGyver_."

" _A-Team_ ," Cougar corrected, smiling up at him while he refastened the inside passenger door panel. "At this point it's better to be prepared."

Jake had wanted to think Cougar was being paranoid in making the SUV more bullet resistant but now three hours later and with sixty miles to go he was glad Cougar had thought of it. The bullet proof vests in their gear were also proving to have been worth putting on before they left the cabin. The third one fastened to the front windshield, though hard to see around to drive, had probably saved his life.

Mountain roads and apocalypse-like times did not make for friendly travel. It did make for two and a half flat tires. Jake was trying not to think of the bodies they had left in their wake as they plowed through the roadblock. Once clear of the shooting they had been able to put the spare on the worse tire and filled the other two tires with cans of "Fix It Flat" and then drove slowly to the next Rest Area.

The Rest Area had looked like something had plowed through it and left half the picnic tables ripped up from the ground. The small building that would have held the bathrooms and vending room was a blackened mess and as soon as Jake had climbed out of the car he smelled burnt wood, plastic, and what he had come to recognize as burnt people. On the other side of the burnt out building five vehicles had managed to stay relatively hidden. Two small cars, two pickup trucks and one of those new crossover vehicles by GMC.

At first they thought to just try and change the tires on the SUV but Cougar had noticed the smell of gasoline and traced it to their own tank which had a small nick in it and was slowly losing gas. Probably just enough that they wouldn't have made their destination, especially with it getting dark. The headlights on their vehicle would definitely grab someone's unwanted attention at night.

"Switch?" Jake asked.

"Check out the Ford and the GMC," Cougar answered. He had a small gas canister out with a line already leading into their SUV's gas tank. All he needed to do was suck on the end to start drawing out the remaining gas in their old vehicle.

The Ford truck was completely out of gas and also had a flat tire. Jake also checked the other pickup just to be sure and when he popped the hood on that vehicle he found a missing water pump and battery. That just left the GMC that had a broken passenger window. If there had been food or clothes in the GMC they were gone now just as in the other two vehicles. However, the tank registered at just under half. There were no keys and there wasn't a spare tire but Jake wasn't sure if this model actually had one or not. He also knew nothing had probably been stolen from under the hood because every access on this vehicle was by the onboard computer system where you just pushed a button.

"Shit," he said quietly. He hadn't planned on actually having to spend the night anywhere.

"This might be better," Cougar said. "Leave here at pre-dawn. Drive as fast as we can, we might reach the outer limits of town before most people are about."

Jake nodded. He flipped open his computer and looked for a set of files he kept buried on in a secret partition on the hard drive. A minute later the car came to life. The high tech crossover vehicle had just become theirs.

~~~***~~~

Outside of a few deer and what Jake had identified as a moose crossing the road, something Cougar had actually never seen before, the first forty miles of their sixty mile journey had actually gone smoothly. It was when they hit the first real township and opted for back roads that things slowed down, though thankfully not from another ambush. Most of it had been abandoned cars and construction equipment.

The last twenty miles had actually taken almost an hour before Jake turned off the main road. He drove another half mile, weaving around abandoned cars, before making another turn to enter an old family neighborhood that had definitely been around for at least seventy years, if not longer. It was what Cougar had envisioned when he thought of normal family living from the old television shows he had watched growing up. Houses were not on top of each other but had spacious front yards, sidewalks covered by the branches of large shade trees, front porches with swings and flower pots.

It was all very normal feeling if you discounted the houses on this particular road with open doors, broken windows, and abandoned cars in the middle of the roads and yards.

Jake had to weave his way through a maze of vehicles that showed evidence of being shot up and then set on fire. The vehicles formed an almost natural boundary that forced traffic to continue straight. Jake took a right between a burned out mini-van and a UPS delivery truck that was rolled on to its side. There was another zigzag movement around a few more abandoned cars, and then they were clear. 

Cougar reached out and grabbed Jake's arm feeling that it was just a little too well planned. "Slow," he said, catching something in the corner of his eye as Jake made it through the maze.

Jake slowed down and Cougar caught the sparkle of light again. Traced it back to a rooftop that was three houses down from the driveway Jake was now turning into.

Cougar stopped Jake from getting out of the car. "There's a sniper," and to Cougar anyone perched up high, hidden out of sight with a gun was a sniper. "Rooftop. Three houses down on your left, other side of the road."

"That's Mr. James' place," Jake replied, wiggling down in the seat so he could use the mirrors to glance at the house. "The man is in his eighties so he better not have climbed up there."

"Jake," Cougar warned and he heard the other man sigh.

"I know," Jake answered. "There's a chance it's not Mr. James."

Cougar took Jake's hand and squeezed. He knew they couldn't sit in the car forever and he was hoping that by driving up to a particular house, pulling into the driveway and shutting off the engine it would make them look less like a threat and more like someone who was looking for family. Which happened to be what they were. 

They both climbed slowly out of the crossover vehicle. Cougar watched Jake look over at the James house. He knew Jake was fighting with himself; trying to decide if he should deal with the possible threat or run to find his sister and niece. Going directly to where his sister and niece were supposed to be though could draw the threat to them as well.

"Cougs," Jake, sounded lost.

Cougar scanned the area. "Jake," he warned, spotting the red dot on Jake's chest. 

Jake straightened from his slight slouch, hand now resting on the gun in his thigh holster. "I see them," he said softly, then more loudly said, "This is my home. Either show yourself or move the fuck along."

Cougar kept his back to Jake's home. A home that looked to have suffered no damage; as a matter of fact none of the homes in the immediate area seemed to have any apparent damage. Jake had told him that his house sat on a road that ended with a cul-de-sac. That the neighborhood was made up of the road his house sat on and two side streets--another with a couple of houses that ended in a cul-de-sac and the third that was just a small park and playground area. Twenty houses total.

"JJ?"

Cougar watched Jake turn towards the voice and tilt his head. A man about his own height with short brown hair wearing tinted shooting glasses walked into the open.

"AJ?" Jake questioned.

"We haven't seen Jenny or Becca since this whole thing started," AJ started but Jake didn't waste any more time and sprinted to the backyard.

"Cougar!" Jake yelled from the backyard a minute later.

Cougar lifted an eyebrow at the other man who stared back at him for a second before giving a hand signal that had the red dot on his own chest disappearing. He jogged after Jake and knew he was being followed.

~~~***~~~

"You're late, Uncle Jake." That was the first thing Jake heard as he pulled the hidden door open, then he was stumbling back slightly at the impact of his niece's body as she ran into him, arms wrapping around his legs. He could hear her sniffling and knew that his jacket would be wet with her tears but he couldn't feel them due to the bullet proof vest he still wore underneath it.

Jake squatted down. "Becks, where's your mom?"

His niece pulled him towards a second room and his sister. She was pale, her breathing was labored and she had a bandage around her leg.

"What the hell, Jen? You went out after I said the words " _Operation Zombie_ ", didn't you?" Jake asked, already kneeling next to the cot where his sister was laying and peeled back the bandages. "This is a knife wound!"

"Stop yelling at me, Jacob," his sister said quietly.

Jake gave his sister a look and yelled as loud as he could, "Cougar!"

Cougar had medic training. Okay, it was field triage but it was more than what he knew, and then Cougar was just there, pushing him out of the way and looking at the wound on his sister's leg. Becca pushed over the large medical kit. 

"You did not tell me about this, little Jensen," Cougar said, glancing at Becca.

"I told her not to," Jen answered, glancing between him and Cougar. "You'd have told Jake and my brother is a worrier."

"I am not...okay, I am," Jake huffed. "Is she going to be okay? How did you get stabbed?"

"Shit, Jake. _Operation Zombie_ was real?" AJ said from just inside the door.

Jake spun around, gun in his hand before he had completely turned around. "Oh right. Aaron," Jake said, sounding a little sheepish as he lowered the gun. "Forgot about you," he admitted. "Who's the pretty redhead armed to the teeth? Hello," he added acknowledging the red haired woman standing beside Aaron who offered him a raised eyebrow and a smile. 

"Kelly Leigh," Aaron offered. "My wife of less than two weeks."

Jake pretty much guessed Aaron's honeymoon had come at the beginning of the apocalypse and wasn't that just the way someone wanted to start a marriage. Though, he guessed the same could be said for him and Cougar and their relationship. "Congratulations," he said, dragging out the word slightly. He wasn't sure if that was an appropriate response for marriage during an apocalypse but it seemed right.

"Jake," Cougar called. "I need you to get the medical bag from the car."

"No, Uncle Jake," Becca said, clinging tightly to Jake's leg. "You can't leave."

"I'll get it," offered Kelly, her soft accent was hard to place and at that moment Jake didn't really care.

"Backseat, but you'll have to go in through the front passenger side door to open the back doors."

Jen groaned as Cougar put pressure on the wound. "It's infected," Cougar said aloud. "We're going to have to clean it out, stitch it, wrap it. It will hurt."

"And?" his sister said.

Cougar didn't say anything and with Cougar that could mean anything from good to bad to he didn't know.

"Would it help if we moved her into the house?" Aaron offered and once again Jake had forgotten about the man. So much for his Special Ops training which honestly could only get him so far during an apocalypse event started by the government.

"We need to talk," Jake told Aaron just as Kelly was returning with the medical bag. "That wasn't TJ," Aaron's grandfather and the reason Jake and Aaron used their initials for names, "on the roof of your house, was it?"

Aaron shook his head no and Jake wanted to ask if TJ was still among the living, but he didn't. Jake normally sucked at reading people but this time the expression on AJ's face was pretty clear. "I'm sorry," was all Jake could think to say. Words were failing him in the last ten minutes.

Even with the local anesthetic numbing the pain around the wound Jake tried not to listen as his sister screamed when Cougar started cleaning out the wound. He kept his own hands over his niece's ears and was actually thankfully when Jen passed out. The wound had begun to bleed quite profusely during the whole process though it had tapered off somewhat in the last minute. 

"Is she going to need blood?" Jake asked, thankful that he and his sister shared the same blood type if she did.

"Yes," Cougar answered, not looking up from where he was now carefully stitching the wound. "To be safe. And an antibiotics drip."

"Is the fugly lamp still beside the couch in the living room?" Aaron asked. "It should be able to support the IV bag.

Cougar actually glanced up at him and Jake instantly knew what he was asking. _Can we trust this guy?_

"Yes," Jake answered. "But if he tries talking you into Mrs. Grayson's tree...never mind, forgot who I was talking to."

"It is still not my fault you fell out of the tree, twice."

Jake sighed. "Aaron, my boyfriend Cougar," and Jake didn't look at Cougar to see his reaction. "Cougs, Aaron James, the guy who sat directly in front of me throughout most of school and my best friend until he moved away."

At that thought Jake looked over both Aaron and Kelly. "Did you get sick? Natural immunity? Or the other thing?" and the last was asked not-so nicely.

"It's a long story."

"I just bet."

Whatever else might have been said was halted when Cougar started wrapping the bandage around Jen's leg and Becca asked, "Is mommy going to be okay now?"

~~~***~~~

Cougar accepted the cup of coffee and the microwaved breakfast sandwich. They had gotten Jen as comfortable as possible on the couch. Her leg elevated and an IV bag in her arm was giving her the fluids she had not previously been taking in and delivering a powerful antibiotic at the same time. Cougar had also given her half a dose of morphine to help her rest without pain.

Becca had not let go of Jake since they had arrived. Not until five minutes ago when Jake had said he needed the bathroom. Now Becca was sitting in his lap eyes clearly trained on the door her uncle had gone through. When Jake exited the bathroom she hopped out of Cougar's lap and was back in Jake's before Jake had fully sat down.

"Becca I need you to," Jake started.

"No."

Cougar knew a lost cause when he heard one and suggested that she could stay if she sat in her own chair, put her headphones on, and worked in the activity book that was still on the table--probably since the day she and her mother had hidden in the storm shelter. That way she could keep her uncle in her sights but not overhear what they were talking about. 

Becca gave him a look and then nodded. Once she was in her own little world and both he and Jake were sure she couldn't really hear them and was only occasionally looking up to make sure they were still there, the four adults turned to the real topic at hand.

Jake started things off. "Got sick, got better," he said, before pointing into the living room. "Same for Jen." He glanced over at Becca. "Natural immunity and I guess Jen actually does have something else to thank the asshole of a sperm donor for besides Becks."

"Vaccine," Cougar said.

Kelly looked at AJ before answering, "Vaccine." 

AJ snorted. "Technically," he added, pointing to himself, "stolen vaccine."

Half an hour later Cougar didn't know what to think of the two spies sitting across from him at Jake's dining room table. He was leaning towards trusting them. They had been the ones to set up the roadblocks; making it look like this small area had been scrounged for supplies and suffered for it. Setting the accidents at the intersection so most wouldn't even notice the turn off and keeping unwanted visitors on the main road, moving away from the area.

They also knew that there were twenty people, now twenty-four when he included himself and the three Jensens, living in the immediate area. Two families had received the vaccine because a family member had worked for the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory. The families had been told it was a new flu vaccine. Two people had the natural immunity and three had gotten sick then better. The others had been found when AJ had scouted the local high school for supplies. There he'd found half a dozen children and their old history teacher, Mr. Casper. It had been Casper up on the roof when they arrived as he'd been a pretty good shot while in the army before being wounded and becoming a history teacher.

"You responsible for the CIA agent who tried to recruit me a few years back?" Jake asked, breaking the silence after finding out that people around the world had been planning this attack for several years.

AJ ran his hands through his hair. "I was a spy," he said. "Bond to your Q, you could say." AJ looked up. "I kept tabs on you, you know? Thought you might try to hack the planet or something. You going into SpecOps, even as a tech, I didn't see coming. It's probably good you said no to the job offer."

Cougar didn't want to think about what would have happened if Jake had gone into the CIA. "Did you ever figure out who was at the top?" Cougar asked.

"Never met him. Never got that high up," AJ admitted. "Only thing either of us got was a name. Max. Then both our covers were blown. Kelly blew up the building with us inside. Hopefully they believe we're dead."

"We tried my people," Kelly said. "But by the time we got to London the first detonation went off."

"So you came home?" Jake asked.

AJ nodded. "I was going to give the vaccine to TJ but he was already too far along and wouldn't take it. We didn't know what it would do to someone who was already showing symptoms. It's still in our fridge. We buried him next to my grandmother."

"The others?" Jake asked, softly.

"We buried the bodies in the Baker's backyard," AJ answered, turning his head to look out the kitchen window. "It's too close to the main road to be safe for anyone to live in and the Bakers were gone. They have no living children so we knew no one would mind."

"Now," Kelly asked. "How did you get the vaccine?"

Cougar answered honestly. "I don't know. Before the last mission my original team was given a physical and that physical included several shots." Aaron looked over at Jake but Cougar answered for his partner. "Jake was a last minute replacement. According to our team leader Jake wasn't supposed to make it out of Puerto Rico. I'm either listed as AWOL or, no," Cougar said, changing his mind. "Clay would have listed us both as KIA."

~~~***~~~

Jake stood quickly and that had Becca taking off her headphones. "Uncle Jake?"

"It's okay Becks," Jake said, looking around the place he called home when the army gave him leave. "I need...I need, I'll be right back," he finished and left the house through the kitchen door.

He needed a moment to himself. He hadn't really believed in zombies even though he had jokingly named the evac plan _Operation Zombie_. He did believe in the cruelty of man, the power of Mother Nature, and being prepared. Besides, in most zombie movies the characters hadn't heard of zombies. Zombies might have been easier, then at least you could tell who half your enemies were just by the way they looked and smelled.

Jake grabbed what he needed from the shelter and headed back into the house. He didn't say a word as he put a green Pelican case on the dining room table before stepping onto the chair he'd been sitting in earlier so he could reach the ceiling. He slid part of the decorative panel for the chandelier out of the way and pulled two cables down. He held the cable in one hand while opening the case in the other. 

The inside of the box had been redesigned slightly for several uses, from being on the run to being able to plug in at home. He plugged the two cables into their slots and then turned on the computer; he was already typing before he had fully retaken his seat.

Four windows appeared on the screen. One a small timer and as it started to count down another screen showed a map of the world with numbers rolling by in the lower half. Jake ignored the third window in favor of the fourth. 

"Sergeant Carlos Alvarez died on a mission twelve days ago," Jake said, not looking from the computer. "It was reported by the team leader that Sergeant Alvarez's body had to be left behind by his team due to its position and the timing and location of the mission's extraction point. Also lost on the mission was Specialist Jacob Jensen." Jake skimmed over a few lines and made a noise. "Apparently I died of the disease shortly after the team landed in Miami. My body was taken to the morgue which coincidentally burned down."

"What the hell, JJ?"

Jake looked over at his old school friend. "Hack the planet," he answered, having closed the one window and reset the timer that hadn't even come close to running down. The map switched over as text began appearing in the fourth window. "Aaron James. Marine Corp before being recruited by the CIA. He was killed in France when the building he was investigating exploded. It's believed that his contact, a Kelly Leigh, set him up but as she was also killed; there's no proof."

AJ sighed. "That's still a crappy movie."

"It's a cult classic," Jake insisted, closing the window and opening another. He searched through a few locations before shutting down his system. "Pooch, his wife, and new born son were checked into one of the military safe zones near Camp Edwards eight days ago," he told Cougar. "Did you know Jolene was pregnant?" 

"No," Cougar said softly. "But that does explain why he left as soon as he could."

Jake tended to agree. He was still pissed at Pooch for leaving without at least telling Cougar, but he could understood why the other man had felt the need to leave as soon as possible. As for the other two members of the Losers, Jake said, "Clay and Roque reported to Fort Bragg."

It didn't look like Cougar was going to say anything for a moment but when he did, Jake couldn't help but agree.

"It's too late to change what happened," Cougar said. "We can only prepare for what's next."

~~~***~~~

Cougar and Jake officially moved into his bedroom together and then spent the next two weeks taking care of Jen and helping out in the neighborhood. Before they had arrived, AJ, Mr. Casper, and a few other survivors' first actions had been to remove the bodies and bury them, while Kelly kept watch from the James' roof. The Baker's backyard became the neighborhood's cemetery with rows of wooden crosses that marked the names of the dead. Between that and setting up the road blocks they hadn't had much time to do anything else. Especially as there were only three of them with the skills to sit up on a roof with a rifle and watch for threats; of which there had been four before their arrival. Two before the roadblock could be put in place and two after. The last had ended with three unwanted visitors who had not been willing to leave empty handed being buried in another section of the large backyard.

Now empty houses were being closed up. Power, natural gas, and water were all being shut off and fire places sealed. Garages were being checked for oil and gas while cars were being rolled out onto the street. Everything possible was being done to prevent a house fire as there would be no fire department to come to their rescue.

Cellars, pantries, medicine cabinets, freezers, and refrigerators were being emptied and the supplies moved closer to the houses that were occupied. No one knew how long the power would last so they were preparing for that just in case. Firewood, camping stoves, flashlights were all being checked. The neighborhood was lucky in that all the houses ran off well water and a few of the older houses still had the old water pumps in the backyard--if it was ever needed. They were rusted shut and would need to be cleaned and checked, but they knew at least one of them worked as AJ's grandfather had kept his in working order until just a few years ago.

A few of the houses also used natural gas for cooking and heating, but most of the newer appliances still used electricity for all the digital functionality.

Like Jake's house and a few others in the neighborhood, the Morrison family had opted for a few solar panels as a trial. They also had a large great room at the front side that had been glassed in a decade earlier. The house was two down from AJ's and almost directly across the street from Jake's, it was the perfect place to set up as a clinic and more than half of the medical supplies were being moved there. 

The dozen solar panels would never power the entire house, but Jake knew he could rewire the system to just power the great room, especially since the Morrison's had opted for the backup battery systems that stored the energy in case of a blackout. It would be enough to power the lights in the room and the small cooler that held the medicines that needed to stay refrigerated.

Houses that had small vegetable gardens were being tended to while the front yards of the first few houses by the entrance to the neighborhood were being tilled for use. No one was sure if anything planted this late would yield anything but they were going to try. The Parkers had a small greenhouse in their backyard with several tomato, pepper, squash plants, and a herb garden. There was also a plan to set up a few more cold weather use greenhouses. There were also an abundance of berry bushes--blueberry, blackberry, and raspberry--in the area.

The Parker family had received the vaccination. Cougar and Jake had brought up the difficult subject of whether or not the family could be trusted. Cougar knew it had hurt Jen as she considered Laynie not only a great next door neighbor but a friend. 

The moment they had told the Parker's that the flu shot from the "flu shot clinic" at Dave's office the month before this whole thing started had actually been a vaccine, Laynie had gotten very still and then very angry before starting to cry. The company had said it was for immediate family only and due to their medical policies Laynie's twin sister, who had been staying with them, had been denied the shot. Faye had been among the first to succumb to the symptoms.

Both the Parkers had been grateful but upset. Laynie had flat out told her husband that the only way he went back to work for that place was over her dead body. Dave had agreed, he had, after all helped bury Laynie's sister and their neighbors. He had told them all his family was more important than a job with an agency that could do something like this. The Parkers' had also taken in the two youngest orphans as they were the same age as their own children. And, more importantly, the children had needed a home.

The Sewell family, the other family that had received the vaccine, had been a different story. Well, the wife had been. Sara Sewell left one afternoon, taking her office credentials and the family car. She'd left a note that stated her first duty was to her job and her family would always come second. That they could be thankful that she'd at least gotten them the vaccine.

The neighbors who had known the Sewell family had not been surprised. Rob Sewell was a very generous man with a kind soul who had left his own job to stay home with the children that Sara seemed to never have connected with--a six year old boy who had been in Becca's class at school and a three year old little girl. Both Laynie and Jen said Sara had never deserved a husband like Rob and while he was devastated over her choice he still had his children to think about. Rob had even taken in one of the other orphans simply because it had been the right thing to do and his home had an unused guest room.

It had never been spoken of, but Cougar was fairly certain that Kelly, AJ, and Mr. Casper had some type of agreement that Sara Sewell would never again step into their neighborhood alive. Cougar couldn't say he blamed them and he had no real objections to the plan.

They had found a CB radio and an old shortwave radio on a shelf in the Hollis garage. It had been a hobby of Greg Hollis' for decades until he had passed away nearly a decade ago. His wife had stored it in the garage hoping one of their children make take it. Now both were in pieces on Jake's dining room table as Jake cleaned them and tried to repair them. They would definitely need to find a new antenna as the old one had been damaged when a tree branch had fallen on the roof several years back. They also had their original comm units, chargers and the two spares that Cougar had brought with them from Puerto Rico. Jake had modified the last two to work with the frequencies already set. They were hoping to get at least ten to fifteen miles out of the 4-watt units. 

Cougar glanced at the two pickup trucks and the SUV that had been _A-Team'ed_ to protect the passengers as much as possible. They were almost ready to make several quick excursions out of the safety of their neighborhood for supplies. There were things they needed before the weather changed any more. They were hoping no one else would have thought to grab most of the items on their list. The only major item on the supply list they needed, and were worried about finding, was gasoline.

~~~***~~~

The first excursion was to one of the big home building supply box stores in the area. Kelly and Mr. Casper were left to hold down the fort, so to speak, while Jake, Cougar, AJ, and Laynie Parker took the supply run. Laynie was there because she was the only one who had been able to get anything to start growing in the tilled land at the front of the neighborhood. She had joked about having been in Future Farmers of America when she'd been in high school and glad that knowledge had stuck with her. So were the rest of her neighbors.

Each truck took one of the comms--one went with whomever was working as spotter to keep an eye on the vehicles, the other went inside with the people gathering the supplies. The other two units stayed in the neighborhood--one with the spotter and one with the person on the ground. So far the comm units had delivered on their range.

They left with the two trucks and came back with each truck hauling a trailer. They were loaded with enough supplies and lumber to build one greenhouse and start on a second. The first one was to be solar heated so vegetables could be grown through the early part of winter and then again in early spring. Every seed packet and tray had been loaded into their trucks. They'd brought pots, rocks, trays, soil and fertilizer. They'd even taken copies of the gardening books that had been on the shelves.

Two of the large solar power storage batteries and the equipment to hook them up were in the second truck along with two dozen more solar panels. There were large spools of ropes, cables, and chains. The two that held the chain had to be rolled on and off the trailers as no one could lift them. The same for the spool of fencing which was going to be used reinforce the fences at the back of the neighborhood. 

The big surprise had been the material to turn the Walters' front porch--the house across from the Bakers--into a chicken coop. The house's yard had already been tilled for planting. The large wrap around porch could easily be turned into a chicken coop with enough room for breeding. An even bigger surprise had been the six hens and two roosters.

The first thing the three men did when they had gotten back was to quickly staple the chicken wire around the porch railing and get the chickens out of the bed of the truck.

"How'd you catch those?" Mr. Casper asked, after climbing down from his perch.

Cougar had raised an eyebrow and looked over at Jake, who in turned had looked at AJ, and in silent agreement all three men had pointed at Laynie. 

The next day they made a second run to the same store and returned with a small moving trunk carrying more soil, fertilizer, cut wood, and the last remaining solar battery kit, as well as anything else they could carry out and fit into the trucks. Propane tanks, charcoal, and two grills rounded out the big items. One trailer was loaded down with cinderblocks and bricks in case they were needed to build a safe place to store the propane away from all the houses. They even took all the odd little items--beef jerky to chap stick and aspirin--from the shelves of the checkout aisles.

Before they lost the last of the daylight they made a quick stop in a feed store for poultry feed, feeders, and other supplies for the chicken coop. By the time they had gotten back from that run Jen--who Cougar wasn't letting do much as he wanted her to keep off her leg--had produced a "How to Care for Your Chickens" guide. There had also been guides made for curing and smoking meat and fish, as well as for canning fruits and vegetables.

Cougar and Jake might have celebrated that night down in the storm shelter so that neither of them were overheard by his sister or niece.

~~~***~~~

Two days later while Kelly took perch duty, Rob, Dave, and Jake, under the direction of Laynie, started building the second greenhouse while Jen taught the children how to take care of the chickens.

Cougar went on the second run, this time with AJ and Mr. Casper. Their first stop had been to Mr. Casper's small house where the man packed two bags of clothes and boots before unlocking a built-in gun cabinet and pulling out guns he had not used since he'd left the army. AJ had packed up the pantry and Cougar had taken the bathrooms. The last thing Mr. Casper grabbed was a stack of books and an old photo album.

Thanks to Mr. Casper's forethought when he'd been hiding at the school with the children he had looked up their home addresses. They made stops at each child's home. The first thing they looked for was to see if anyone had left a note for the child in case a family member had come looking. Seven houses and sadly there had been no notes. Cougar generally kept watch as the others packed a bag of clothes and shoes for each child. Mr. Casper had, in a very indirect way, asked each child about their favorite things and he or AJ tried to grab those items along with a handful of toys, books, and family pictures. Again they packed up any supplies they found in the pantries and medicine cabinets. 

They'd only had a problem at one house when they had run into another group of people looking for supplies. It had been a close call but one of the boys in the group had recognized Mr. Casper and then noticed that the ex-teacher was holding a family photo. 

"You can have this house," the boy had called out, all bravado, "but the rest of this area is ours."

Mr. Casper had nodded and said, "I understand Jeremy. I wish you the best of luck."

The boy had turned to leave before stopping just outside of the house's door before speaking again. "I know Thomas is dead, but Sally is asthmatic. Her mom kept the spare inhaler in the kitchen drawer across from the fridge."

Inside the drawer they found an unopened three month supply of asthma meds--pills and three rescue inhalers. A couple of bottles of acetaminophen, ibuprofen, and a two blister packs of pseudoephedrine.

Their last stop for that day had been a firehouse. The main doors were wide open and there were spray paint tags all over the place but they'd been able to get what they needed: two hoses that would fit the fire hydrants in their neighborhood, the key to turn the hydrants on, fire jackets, and oxygen tanks.

On a whim Cougar had tried turning the ignition key on the smallest vehicle--an ICS Type 3 vehicle, and was surprised when the vehicle had actually rumbled to life. They took it with them.

~~~***~~~

Their next trip out was delayed as everyone focused on getting the greenhouse finished and seeds planted. When they finally did go out they got more than they were expecting.

This time the excursion team consisted of Kelly, Cougar, and Jake. They needed the digital lock on the gas wells overridden at the gas station. They picked a station about ten miles from their neighborhood and were going to work backwards. They had four 25-Gallon poly gas caddies that were on wheels that had come with a hose and gas pump for filling vehicles that they had found at the feed store; plus a handful of five gallon cans from the building supply store, as well as a hand pump to transfer the gas from the well to the caddies if they couldn't get the actual pumps to work.

They were filling their third caddie when another truck pulled in. Guns were raised, angry words were shouted. Jake looked to where he knew Cougar was perched and then there was a loud piecing whistle. How Cougar could whistle that loud when he barely spoke was beyond Jake but it got everyone to shut up. 

"Guns and gasoline will get us all killed and then what?" Jake asked, mildly annoyed. "We live through an apocalypse only to die from stupidity. Plus, you see that little red dot on your friend's forehead?"

"Jake Jensen is that you?" asked a very pretty brunette with soft, curly hair and legs that still impressed him even to this day. Maria Aiza stepped out from behind the truck, her rifle pointed towards the ground.

"Hola, Maria," he answered, a little more cheerfully than before. Maria had been two years ahead of him and AJ in school. He had tutored her in math and she taught him Spanish. "How's trigonometry treating you?"

Maria snorted. "Put the gun down Gerald. Let's not shoot the guy who can actually get the gas out of the pumps for us."

Maria had married Thomas Danvers of Danvers Organic Dairy Farms which was located northwest of the gas station. Gerald was one of the farm hands. There were fifteen survivors at the farm and they needed diesel fuel for the generators that actually ran the farm-side of things. The Danvers house was still on the grid but the farm was out because the transformer that fed that portion of the land had been hit by an eighteen-wheeler two days after the outbreaks and no repair crew had ever come.

They worked out a deal. Jake would help them fill the 100-gallon drum they had with them today and agreed to meet them again tomorrow to fill a second in exchange for five 1-gallon jugs of milk, four quarts for cream, four pints of butter, and one five pound wheel of cheese. They would repeat this every Monday until the diesel well was dry. This way they could save their soy and powdered milk. They could also freeze part of the cheese and butter.

Both sides left the gas station happy and Jake locked the pumps down before he left.

It was on the way back that Cougar caught movement--a child running across a parking lot. They stopped to investigate and Jake said a silent word of thanks that at least one of them had been born in this area as a bullet dinged off the light poll he was standing next to.

"Doc Farris," he yelled, having just caught a glance at the person with the gun. "Please don't shoot me. You delivered me and my sister and you’re my niece's primary care doctor," he called out. "Jacob Jensen. Jen and Becca are both alive too." He added the last bit hoping it would make the three of them seem less dangerous and more friendly.

There was silence for a moment and then, "You broke your arm twice following that Aaron James boy up a tree."

"I did, yes," Jake agreed. "Mr. Casper said he went by your place when this all started and it looked like your house had been ransacked."

"I don't recognize the other two with you," a women's voice called.

Jake recognized the voice. Ms. Margo, Doctor Farris' wife and the primary nurse in his office. "Kelly Leigh James, AJ's, Aaron's wife and Carlos Alvarez, my boyfriend. Ms. Margo," he asked, "can we put our hands down now? We can take you somewhere safe."

The door to the office building opened. "Come in," Doctor Farris offered.

Jake wasn't sure what he expected of the small office complex but a doctor's office wasn't it. He didn't think he had been away from home that long. "Are you guys okay? What happened to the old place over on Cedar?" he asked, as there hadn't been a sign marking what offices the small complex held.

Ms. Margo looked them all up and down before lowering the shotgun she held in her arm. "You finally grew into your frame, Jacob."

Jake knew he probably failed at not making a face at Ms. Margo's comment. "Yes, ma'am," he answered. "And no more falling out of trees too," he added as an after thought.

There were five people in the waiting room--four adults and an adolescent boy who wasn't quite a teen. Jake didn't recognize the other two adults but learned that Cynthia Choo was Doctor Farris' physician's assistant and the man with her was her husband Alex, a general contractor. The not-teen was their son, Chris who was twelve. They had all been given the vaccine, but had been hiding out in the new offices when they found out the vaccine had come with a cost of apparent servitude to the new authority.

It took ten minutes of discussion but the four adults agreed that moving into the Morrison's house would be their best course of action. Cougar made a call on their comm unit to ask AJ or Mr. Casper to bring the SUV and to attach the smaller trailer to it.

By the time Mr. Casper arrived they had what medical supplies and equipment they could transport ready to go. Their little safe haven now had a doctor, but Jake was actually a little happier to have Alex because he wasn't sure the second greenhouse wasn't going to blow over if someone sneezed anywhere near it.

~~~***~~~

Jake, Cougar, Kelly, Jen, AJ, and Mr. Casper--whose first name was Phil but neither AJ or himself could call him that as it was just too strange to call one of their former teachers by their first name--sat around Jake's dining room table trying to make plans for the future. It was decided that Mr. Casper was officially their community's leader as everyone respected him and would listen to him. Jen would work as his second. Jake's sister was organized to say the least. They were now the _Clover Meadows Township_ named for the neighborhood they lived in.

They also came up with a plan to get into the big warehouse supply store that Cougar and AJ had scouted out the day before and still looked intact. It would be easier to work with more people even if they had to split the supplies. So the following Monday morning when Jake went to make the gas pumps work for the dairy trade with Maria Danvers, Mr. Casper asked, "You guys want to borrow a moving truck or two and help us with the warehouse store?" while Kelly packed the dairy into a cooler that had been in the pickup truck to keep it cold.

By late afternoon there were five moving trucks--three going back to Clover Meadows and two going back to Danvers packed with supplies. Everything from personal hygiene and health needs to every single bag of sugar, flour, and cornmeal to clothing, sheets, and towels, canned goods, canning equipment, and airtight storage containers were split between the two groups of survivors.

The Danvers let Clover Meadows have the majority of the medical supplies in exchange for access to Doctor Farris. Both groups were afraid that once they left the warehouse open that a second pass would not be available if more groups found the place or were watching and waiting for them to leave.

Maria had also promised that the dairy deliveries would continue. That they both needed to know there were survivors out there that could be trusted and counted on in an emergency. Mr. Casper countered with, "If you need anything, we're on channel fifteen."

Sometime between that supply run and the next gas for dairy exchange there had been a gun fight at the warehouse store. There were at least four dead, counting only the bodies outside in the parking lot, as they drove by. The building itself looked to have partially caught fire as well, thankfully it looked like the sprinkler system inside had been able to contain it and put it out.

~~~***~~~

Jake set up a comm room--CB radio, shortwave radio, radios tuned into AM and FM stations that had come back on the air a week earlier, and the internet--in Jen's old office. By the time Jake and Cougar had made it to New Hampshire radio and television broadcasts had stopped. The internet was there but news organizations were not; even the government sites and emergency signals were gone.

A week ago the local community college radio station, came back on air. Whatever the station's call letters had been it was now being called WLIV. The surviving students had banded together. The DJ was a young woman named Mandy who been a Radio/TV major in college. The station played music and Mandy read updates that she received from other radio stations they could communicate with. She also answered questions and passed on information they received on channel eighteen of the citizen's band.

Becca had called it the _Twilight Bark_ and then Cougar had been introduced to _101 Dalmatians_. He loved the Jensen family, and Becca's name had been an apt description for how they were getting news now.

They'd learned that California had been swept by a series of explosions and wild fires. They didn't know which was the cause or the effect. Reports of organized military transport had been seen in several states but none in New Hampshire as of yet. One of the oil fields in Texas had been destroyed, but there was no word on how. Internationally, several nuclear power plants had reported issues right before the start of the plague and governments across the world had started shutdown procedures fearing possible meltdowns due to lack of employees as the number of deaths had increased in the days that had followed. Surprisingly enough there was only one meltdown world wide and it had been in South America. 

Cougar and Jake said nothing but they were almost positive that whatever their mission had been prior to the plague breakout had probably been responsible. 

There had been reports of cement trucks near the nuclear silos in Montana and North Dakota before everything had gone radio silent. Again, no further information had been provided but speculation was the silos were being filled in to prevent launch as the crews had become unresponsive.

Finally, it looked like Washington, DC had been among the hardest hit areas in the United States. The government had come to a halt as one of the devices had actually gone off while both houses of Congress had been in session. Of the five hundred and forty-one members of Congress it was being reported that less than sixty had survived. The President and Vice-President were also gone, as well as most of his cabinet.

The remaining members of Congress voted a Maxwell Donovan, a CIA Security Specialist who had regularly worked with Homeland Security into office as the new President. Strangely, close to a third of those who voted never made it back to their home states to take up their new _Governor_ positions.

One week later a woman calling herself Aisha al-Fadhil tried to kill Donovan, blaming him not only for the death of her father but all of Bolivia. The attempt failed but Donovan's left hand and arm were severely burned and in the aftermath of the attempt al-Fadhil escaped.

Shortly after that there were rolling brown outs and when all power was restored the public internet, cell phone, and land line phones did not recover. 

As far as Clover Meadows was concerned, several of its residents were trying to ignore that this Maxwell Donovan was probably their mysterious _Max_. They also realized that ensuring power restoration while taking away the majority of communication was a simple way to remind the remaining population that there was someone in charge. Especially when two days later a new national television channel--the only one that actually worked--and a national radio station came on the air.

~~~***~~~

Cougar was somehow so tangled in the sheets and Jake's long limbs that he couldn't figure out how to extract himself without the entire mix ending up on the floor. He reached between their bodies and caressed Jake's cock hoping it would get the younger man to either move or wake up. Jake did move, closer, rubbing his body into Cougar's--which Cougar admitted felt good; however, Jake still didn't wake.

He tried again. This time Jake rolled on to his back, bringing Cougar and the sheets with him. Now Cougar found himself laying on top of Jake. Cougar shimmied around a little until he worked his right leg loose enough to lift over Jake's left leg. The movement had made both he and Jake hard and he figured this would definitely wake his lover.

Cougar wiggled his body until he was in the position he wanted to be. He reached between their bodies to align Jake's cock before slowly taking it into himself. Jake came awake at the same time Cougar sat up, Jake's cock fully embraced by his tight passage. Cougar's hand quickly stifled Jake's shout. He waited until Jake was awake before rocking his hips. Removing his hand he leaned down so he could kiss his lover. 

Jake's hands roamed his back and sides before coming to stop just below Cougar's hips. Jake held him in place as he thrust deeper into Cougar. Cougar rode the thrust up, just to push back down. Their rhythm increased as they both got closer and closer to a climax. They were coming just as the outer alarm to Clover Meadows sounded.

"Really? Now?" Jake asked him, trying to get them untangled from the sheets. "They couldn't have waited say five minutes. I was enjoying my wake up."

Cougar chuckled softly and padded over to the window to glance out. The radio on the bedside table squawked to life. "Dark brown Humvee," came AJ's voice. "Looks to be military."

It had been almost eight weeks since the apocalyptic plague had been released. Their car barrier had been rearranged slightly after they checked on the only other neighborhood in the area. They found only three survivors and Jen had been mildly ashamed that they hadn't thought to investigate the Meadow Woods neighborhood sooner. The three survivors moved into Clover Meadows and the Meadow Woods neighborhood was shutdown--power, gas, water turned off; and useful supplies moved. 

"The Humvee's stopped and someone's getting out," Murphy--the state patrol officer and former Meadow Woods' resident, announced over the comm. "Black man, probably early thirties, bald."

Cougar and Jake had used the sheet to wipe themselves clean and were mostly dressed when Cougar looked out the window again. "Pooch," he said softly.

Jake grabbed the comm and was already moving down the stairs when he answered back to not shoot but to keep their guest where he was. By the time both Cougar and Jake were down the stairs they could hear Pooch asking, "I'm looking for the Jensen residence. I'm hoping, I mean, I have some news to deliver."

Cougar didn't wait. He realized the moment that he saw Pooch he was still upset with his former teammate. "What news would that be?" Cougar asked, and no one in the neighborhood had heard the soft spoken man sound so furious before. "Did you pull the trackers before you got anywhere near here or are you here to report back on us to _Max_?"

"Cougs?" Pooch sounded confused and tried to take a step forward only to stop and raise his hands in the air when he noticed the red dot from a laser sight on his chest. "Roque told me you had died in Miami with Jensen. And Clay said no one had told Jensen's family."

"You working for them?"

The passenger side door opened and a woman slowly got out of the Humvee. A second laser sight shone brightly on her chest. The sound of a child crying had her moving her arms slightly to adjust the baby she carried. The second red dot switched to also target Pooch.

"No, he is not," the woman said and she sounded like a pissed off wife whose husband was in the dog house. Cougar had met Jolene a handful of times, including at their wedding. He had liked the straight forward woman. "He's here to apologize. Now apologize, Linwood. And if Jensen has family still living I would like to speak with them."

Cougar felt Jake walk up to them. "You must be Jolene," he heard his lover say. "Did you remove the trackers before you absconded from your previous locale with one of their vehicles?"

Pooch was speechless. "But, the report. I'm going to...they said. Of course, they said," Pooch just stood there for a second. "I am so sorry," he said, lowering his hands to wring them together in front of him. "I got the call that Jolene was in the hospital and they said you were on the next flight to Miami. I didn't think to question it." Pooch rubbed his hands across his head. "This is more fucked up than I thought."

"Trackers?" Jake asked again.

Pooch nodded his head. "After we snuck away from the safe camp I drove west for a while and then removed them," he said. "They're floating down some river in an empty soda bottle."

Cougar tilted his head. He wasn't sure he was ready to forgive Pooch. Though the fact, even if it had probably been Jolene's idea, that he had come all this way to talk to Jensen's family, did work in his favor. Plus, he wasn't going to hold Pooch's decision against Jolene or their child. "Are you headed anywhere?" he finally asked.

Pooch shrugged his shoulders.

Mr. Casper came out to join Cougar before they both stepped away to talk to Jen and Kelly. After a few moments of discussion Jen walked up to the couple. "I'm Jennifer Jensen," she said, offering her hand to Jolene. "I can understand why your husband made the decision he did and both Jake and Cougar speak highly of his skills as a mechanic and that's something we could use. That said," she paused to give emphasis on her next words. "If you leave here without warning, and with more than you arrived with, you won't like the welcoming should you ever return."

Jolene gave a sharp nod before answering. "Trust me," she answered, "if he tries anything he'll get to see what I'm like when I'm really pissed at him and I can guarantee it won't be pretty."

"I would rather not," Pooch chimed in, not stepping any closer to the two women.

Cougar gave Mr. Casper a small nod and the other man came forward. "Then welcome to Clover Meadows," Mr. Casper said. "You can have the old Corrin place, just over there," he indicated a blue and white house.

The Porteous family settled in nicely and Pooch's skills were able to help the Danvers get the farm back on the power grid so they didn't have to rely on the diesel fuel for the generators; especially when they would need the fuel later for the crop harvesters. This in turn would keep Clover Meadows in dairy products longer. 

The Humvee had become their primary excursion vehicle after they'd first taken it into town to one of the auto body repair places to paint it a different color; even going as far as adding a couple of those family decals to the back window and bumper to make it look civilian and not military. 

Cougar had still given Pooch the cold shoulder until Jake had told him, "I love you, but knock it off. He trusted the wrong person. It's Clay and Roque that you're mad at and Pooch is taking the brunt of it because they are not here."

He breathed out heavily. It was true and unfair and he knew it, but Jake was his and Pooch could have cost him that. Jake gave him a look and he nodded. "When did you get so smart," he joked, softly.

"I would say since the day I was born," Jake answered. "But Jen would say it was the day I picked you up in a bar."

Cougar laughed. "I picked you up."

"Whatever, man," Jake replied.

Cougar grabbed Jake by the neck and kissed him deeply. Only stopping when Jen yelled at them to take it upstairs.

~~~***~~~

A few days into December the radio station had announced that small caravans of military vehicles were out and about looking for soldiers who had not reported back to base. A day later they got a visit from three black military Humvees and a transport truck. Cougar and AJ were perched in different locations while Jake, Murphy, and Pooch were hiding close by when Mr. Casper, Jen, and Kelly walked out to greet them.

"Wade Travis," Pooch muttered over their comms.

"Who's that?" Murphy asked.

"A very bad man," Cougar replied.

Murphy made a sound that came over the comms as a snort. "I thought you all were bad men."

"He's worse," Cougar answered.

Jake added, "Besides we're the good guys."

Mr. Casper cleared his throat over the comms and Jake knew that was their former teacher telling them to be quiet. A minute later Mr. Casper politely asked Travis, "What can we do for you folks?"

The back door on the lead Humvee opened and a man got out. Once he was out that seemed to be the sign for the other soldiers to get out of their Humvees and the truck. The eighteen man squad spread out taking stock of the Clover Meadows Township. "You are now under the authority of the New England Governorship," said a man with short brown hair that Pooch had identified as Travis. "We will be searching every home for deserters and a few others. As well as confiscating unauthorized materials."

"And if we don't want you to search our homes?" Mr. Casper asked.

One of the soldiers laughed. "You got no say in it old man. This little shit hole you call home now belongs to the State of New England. Everything you have we can take."

"O'Reilly!" the leader barked. "Shut your trap."

Jake had a very bad feeling about this. Very bad. He crept closer to the back of the group as they were not covering their rear. He just wished these guys had picked another group to have their internal argument in front of.

"We're tired of taking your orders, Travis," another soldier said, drawing his weapon. "We know you helped plant the devices, helped make this new world because the guy sitting in the big white house ordered it. Well, we want our own rewards."

"Phillips, shut up and put your weapon away," another man said.

Phillips just laughed and pointed his gun at the other soldier and fired. The soldier rocked back, firing his own gun and hitting Phillips before hitting the ground with a hole in neck just above where his armor stopped. All the soldiers drew their weapons and pointed them at each other in some weird standoff.

"Enough of this!" Travis ordered. "We're going to have to sanitize this group now," he said, shooting O'Reilly in the head and addressing the remaining fifteen men. "Then you can take whatever you want. Understood?"

"What's stopping us," another man started only to stop when Travis shot him and the guy standing next to him.

"Anyone else want to speak out of turn?" Travis asked.

There were several "no, sirs" and Travis turned back to look at the townsfolk. Jen, Mr. Casper, and Kelly had already started slowly backing away before the first soldier had drawn his weapon, but they weren't going to make it. 

Kelly was already moving, knocking Jen and Mr. Casper to the ground before Travis fired. Jake was already coming up behind two men and brought them down before they even realized he was behind them.

A shot rang out and a third guy fell. Jake wasn't sure who had taken the shot but gave them the okay sign before moving to his next target. In the end it took them maybe five minutes to neutralize the threat and their side only had one injury.

Travis had two holes in his head. It seemed like over kill but who was Jake to argue with a sniper. Cynthia Choo came out and helped Kelly up. She had been the only one injured with a bullet in the arm.

"I'm fine," Kelly was arguing with AJ as they walked to the clinic.

"You've been shot!"

"It's not the first time."

"You're pregnant this time!"

There was silence and Jake hung back. "Umm, uncomfortable," he muttered. Cougar who was now standing next to him nodded.

"I said nothing overly strenuous; a tackle is included in that," Doctor Farris said. Kelly started to say something, but didn't even get a word. "Do not argue with me young lady. No tackling, no climbing on roof tops. Now let's see about this arm."

Mr. Casper didn't even follow. "If we follow he's going to ground us all. Besides," he said, "we need to clean this mess up."

Jake knew that Doc Farris had told Mr. Casper he was too old to be following the kids onto the roof or into the trees. 

AJ came jogging out of the house and everyone could hear Kelly still yelling at her husband. "I'm, uh, yeah. Let's clean up."

"Sometimes your wife scares me," Jake commented.

"No shit," AJ agreed.

Clean-up included stripping half the weapons and supplies from the eighteen men and four vehicles. The bodies were loaded into the truck and then the vehicles backed out of Clover Meadows. They took the vehicles down the road to Clover Woods where they sat for twenty minutes before driving to two more neighborhoods they knew were empty and doing the same thing. Then they split the convoy, waited ten minutes and had them meet up again. They drove until they hit a bridge and again split the convoy. Pooch and AJ took two of the Humvees and drove them to one side of the bridge and then turned them around and aimed them back towards the remaining Humvee and the truck.

Murphy met them at the bridge five minutes later. Between the five of them they got the bodies out of the truck and spread between the locations. A couple of bodies on both sides were knocked over the side of the bridge into the partial ice flow that was the river below. Pooch climbed into the front Humvee, put it in reverse and backed into the other Humvee on his side of the road with enough force to send it to down the embankment. An Uzi was used to shoot up both Humvees and the bodies that had been put into place in and around them.

The last thing they did was shoot the vehicles on the other side of the bridge with one of the rocket launchers that had been in the back of Travis' Humvee and tossed a grenade into Travis' Humvee and rolled a second one under the Humvee that had rolled down the embankment. The explosions lit the sky and would help cover up any evidence that it was anything other than infighting that caused the chaos on the bridge.

"Time to go," AJ called.

"Beats fifty guys with Uzis," Pooch said. "And don't any one of you crazy people give the Pooch the look that says they wanted that because we just don't need that here." 

Jake looked back as they all ran single file back to the car Murphy had brought. It would look like maybe one or two people survived based on the scattered footprints that they just hadn't been able to remove. They also drove over the bridge a couple of times just to make it look like the bridge had more traffic on it than it normally did. They left the car in the parking lot of the big box store where Mr. Casper was waiting for them. Jake hoped it was enough to make sure Clover Meadows wasn't on anyone's map.

~~~***~~~

It was the fifth day of the new year and the radio station had made an announcement that the all stations on the television were getting ready to air some type of government address. Fifteen minutes later Jake just stared at the television finding words hard to come by. "Can you believe this shit?" he asked.

There on the television, standing behind the Devil known as Max was Clay. Clay who was now the Secretary of Defense or some such title. He knew somewhere behind them Roque had to be there. He wasn't sure what this really meant or if it mattered at all to their area. Max started his _State of the New Republic Address_.

Pooch came running in the front door, breathing heavily due to the cold weather and snow. "Did you see?" he got out between breaths. "Ah, you are watching."

There had been a few hours of lost power here and there over the winter but nothing the area wasn't used to during heavy snow storms. There had probably been less than there would have been if all the houses in town had still been occupied. With the help of the people at the dairy they'd turned off the power to entire areas--natural gas as well. 

The manuals that Jen had printed up had been copied and print bound thanks to Jolene. Copies had been shared with the dairy and the students at the radio station. The manuals had been expanded to include things like making toothpaste, candles and peanut butter and blackberry jam. While it would take a while to get through the supplies of certain things they all had on hand, other items could not be replaced as there just weren't people with the skills to staff manufacturing plants.

It would take a while before secure trade with other states could happen. Trade routes were still being worked out and protecting cargo was a dangerous job. Until then fresh fruit--like apples and citrus that weren't native to the area--beef, pork, fish, and other goods including wheat and corn were rare. However, thanks to the radio stations that were operating there were a few exchanging posts popping up across the area that had once been known as New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, and upstate New York.

Watching television for something informative and not coming off a DVD player was something that hadn't been done since shortly after the plague hit. Jake took a moment to think back to a few days before Christmas and the Travis incident. Cougar tapped him gently on the knee and he tuned back in to the television and listened as Max apologized to the cities where his soldiers had raided and turned on themselves and everyone. In that moment everyone in Clover Meadows breathed easier knowing that their cover-up had actually worked.

"My fellow citizens," Max said, ending his speech, "there is a hard road in front of those of us who have survived this great disaster, but I know we will move forward into greatness. Soon, each new district will hear from their local Governors. They will help with keeping the power on in your area. Help you with getting necessary supplies. I hope we can all come together and once again be proud to be Americans. I thank you for your time."

The television screen went dark.

"You believe that bull shit?" Murphy asked who had come through the door half way through the speech followed by AJ, Kelly, and Mr. Casper.

Everyone looked at everyone else, but no one said a thing. They were going to continue on as if Max didn't exist.

~~~***~~~

**Eighteen months later.**

Emily James made the nonsense babble-talking-noise of toddlers that implied she was telling you something important but you had no idea what she was telling you. She paused in her babble to look at Cougar for a second longer and then crawled-walked through the short grass in front of the James' house and back towards her mother. Pooch's son was toddler-running and trying to kick his little soccer ball like the older children across the street who were under the watchful eye of Rob Sewell. Today was the Clover Meadows Township's monthly planning meeting and the meetings were held wherever it was most comfortable and this evening it was outside on the porch at the James' house.

They'd made it through two winters and were now in their second summer. The power was still on but there had been rolling brownouts every afternoon between one and three for the last few months. There had been no announcement from their _local governor_ or from the national radio station as to the cause or if they were to continue. WLIV had given a report that there were military guards now posted at the power plant but no other news had been available. When one of their DJs had tried to ask they were warned off and, for now, everyone was staying away.

A government-run replacement for FEMA and the Red Cross came through offering medical treatment. Most of the people in the area were wary of excepting any type of medicine from them; however they did accept several water purification systems.

There had been a few confrontations from bandits, but Clover Meadows had pushed them back or come to the assistance of those at the dairy and at the college to do so. All three groups had taken in a few more survivors, though the college had probably taken in double as they had turned classrooms in the same building with the fitness center and gym into apartments. The large front lawns had become gardens and Clover Meadows had provided some of the initial seeds.

During the first summer it had been decided that some sort of schooling for the children was needed. A plan had been formed between Mr. Casper, Carly Heath--a college student who had been in her last semester for elementary education--and Mrs. Danvers from the dairy--Maria's mother-in-law who had retired as the principal of the local middle school a year before the outbreak. Three smaller classrooms at the college were set up and Monday through Friday from ten to noon classes were held in reading, writing, spelling, and math. On Wednesday afternoons from one to four advanced classes were held in biology and chemistry, often taught by either a college student with the knowledge, or Ms. Margo, Doctor Farris' wife and nurse. For now there would be no more medical or nursing schools and general familiarity with the subject was needed before being allowed to shadow or intern with those who had the medical knowledge and training. Tuesdays and Thursdays were basic mechanic, building, and farming classes. The classes ran from April to October.

It had been Jolene's concept to use the printing office at the college to print large calendars for the upcoming years. The final product had been a flip calendar for the next three years with the dates and times for the classes pre-printed only on the first year. The calendar also included helpful hints about planting schedules and gave enough room that people could write in information that WLIV announced--like garbage burning locations and days. 

Starting last summer there had been an optometrist from Canada and a dentist from Vermont who traveled into the area every six months. Both travelled with an armed escort and worked for supplies, generally arriving mid-morning and leaving the next day late-afternoon. Clover Meadows had gone back through several of the empty subdivisions and taken the reading and prescription glasses as well as still packaged dental supplies. The supplies had been used for a full trade for anyone at the college, dairy farm or Clover Meadows to see either doctor for their first two visits.

The Clover Meadows vegetable and herb gardens were producing nicely, so were the chickens. They'd taken a load of vegetables, eggs, herbs and two chickens and a roster to the exchange market held the first and third Saturdays of the month in an empty parking lot at the edge of town. They'd come back with two pounds of pecans, half a bushel of peaches--both from South Carolina, and a small lemon tree that would produce fruit if kept in one of their greenhouses. 

Laynie Parker's herb garden had been expanded after the first summer and the Clover Meadows Township became known for both their fresh and dried herbs, and people often brought seeds for herbs and spices hoping that Laynie could succeed where they had failed. Though, surprisingly enough on Saturday it had been the unopened pack of Hershey miniatures that had netted them the greatest return, a full butchered pig. 

Cougar was going to enjoy the bacon. He had missed bacon.

"You can stop dreaming of the bacon," Jake whispered, leaning into him a little more. "Jen is making you a BLT for lunch."

Cougar knew he wasn't blushing but he didn't like getting caught out not paying attention even if it was only by Jake. He leaned back in the double rocking chair and put his arm over Jake's shoulder.

The township was making the final arrangements for the last two markets of the summer season. They had also agreed to help escort the products that the dairy was putting up at a neighboring market in Vermont over the weekend. Next month they would start prepping for fall and the coming winter.

Cougar looked around Clover Meadows and the people who were out. He watched Becca kicking the soccer ball and when she looked over at him and waved he waved back. He had become Uncle Cougar within the first month and he knew Jen adored him not only because he made Jake happy but because she saw him as family. 

He couldn't say that he'd ever dreamed of a future where he sat on the council for a small group of plague survivors, but here he was and he was happy. The Jensens were his family and he had friends, not just acquaintances like he'd had in the army. 

And if Clay or Roque ever stepped foot in Clover Meadows to do harm to his family, they weren't leaving under their own power.

Mr. Casper brought their meeting to an end. Cougar didn't move as Jen headed back to their home and called Becca in after her. He didn't want to seem too eager after all.

Jake snickered next to him. "Didn't want to follow her right away, did you?"

Cougar leaned over and kissed Jake before standing up and stretching. He walked slowly until Jake jogged by him chanting, "Bacon, bacon," and then the chase was on.

**~end~**

~~~***~~~

  


**Author's Note:**

> Please take a moment to [look at all the wonderful art](http://swannee.dreamwidth.org/107373.html) that [colls](http://colls.dreamwidth.org/) made for this story.


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